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It’s generally agreed that precious natural resources are threatened and need to be preserved, diversity deserves to be promoted, and ego-driven behaviour is probably not the best way forward for the planet.
So why are otherwise sane people obsessed with the elite, rich man’s sport of Formula 1 motor racing?
The short answer is that a company called Liberty Media took over the management of Formula 1 in 2017, gave it a shake up and two years later let Netflix produce a reality show called Formula 1: Drive to Survive, which gave an up close and personal look at the cars, the drivers, the teams behind them and the near-death experiences known as the races themselves.
All with a heavy overlay of manipulated and manipulative drama, which audiences have lapped up (pun 100% intended). The series will have made its makers very rich, though probably not rich enough to run a team in the notoriously expensive sport.
The show is highly addictive. Brilliantly structured, inevitably fast-moving and with classic soap opera elements, it’s a full-on sensory assault but without the high-ticket prices or other inconveniences of actually being there.
Formula 1 has never been so watchable. Actually, Formula 1 has never been watchable. Many a disappointed punter has shelled out hundreds for tickets to an event only to find they are seated in a crowded stand in blazing sun, consuming overpriced food and drink and glimpsing a coloured blur flash hazily past them every now and then.
So, TV actually lets you see what happens in car racing – ie, cars go round and round in a circle, or sometimes through a town, very, very fast. And sometimes they crash into inanimate objects or each other. That’s it. But at least with Netflix you get your varoom with a view.
There is little acknowledgement that almost all the values acted out by the performers are reprehensible. Seriously – would you want your kid to grow up to be one of the tanty-throwing divas we see on that show? Would you even want that kid to be the one to drive you to the rest home when the time came?
And surely when fossil fuels are a top-of-mind problem, glorifying their consumption in this way should not be promoted. Shouldn’t it be banned, not glorified?
The facts actually belie this natural assumption. In a study – admittedly done by the Formula 1 folk themselves – it was found that the actual racing only accounts for a small percentage of the trouble.
According to carboncredits.com, since “0.7% of F1′s total carbon dioxide emissions come from cars, you may wonder where the rest of the emissions are coming from. The rest of the 256,551 tons of carbon dioxide comes from actually travelling the world to get to different 20+ races.”
The largest single component is all the travelling of support staff, shipping of vehicles to races and other downstream consumption. A few people driving fast cars won’t be the tipping point of global environmental catastrophe but it’s not exactly a great example for the rest of us.
Organisers are also promising all sorts of sustainability initiatives and a grateful world can only applaud such efforts if they actually make them.
Nevertheless, it’s not a great example to millions of people who see powerful engines and motorhead mania being glorified. The show’s other values are not always desirable: ego, extreme competitiveness, a win-at-all-costs mentality and life-threatening risk-taking, to name a few.
Also, less than commendable is the way Formula 1 appeals to our atavistic bloodlust. Anyone who says they aren’t watching with at least a back-of-the-mind expectation/hope that there will be some sort of collision and carnage is trying to fool themselves. The show is actually ancient Roman gladiator v lion – in this case, gladiator v horsepower – updated.
It relies on other ancient storytelling tropes as well: underdogs, over-reaching heroes, cliff-hangers, intense rivalries between warriors.
And thus, all too predictably, it has inspired other shows using the same formula: Chasing the Dream – which covers the Formula 2 racing circuit. If you would like something less noisy or life-threatening you might enjoy: Make or Break (surfing), Full Swing (golf), Break Point (tennis), Together Treble Winners (football). The race is still on.
